Big Iron World

One surefire antidote for modern life and its discontents is the new Old Crow Medicine Show cd, Big Iron World. I picked it up tonight at FYE (that's For Your Entertainment) in West Hartford, CT. On the way back to Storrs, about a half-hour drive, I listened to the whole album, all twelve tracks. My impression on the first listen is that it's not quite as life-changing as their eponymous first album. There's less energy, less drive overall, but it's replaced with more seriousness, more ballads and blues tunes. There's the characteristic nod to that Old Crow drug of choice, cocaine - "I love my wiskey and I love my gin, / but the way I love my coke that's a doggone sin / hey, hey, honey take a whiff on me" from "Cocaine Habit." And the Medicine Show have some wisdom to share about minding one's own business: "let it alone, let it alone, if it don't concern you, let it alone. / Don't go around putting on airs, and meddling in other folks' affairs." I remember hearing this one at their show in Little Rock at Sticky Fingers. The crazy-looking banjar (or guitjo) player sang, getting really intense about it in a humorous sort of way. My favorite track is "Down Home Girl," a paean to the beauties of the rural South and their particular charms: "well I swear your perfume girl, is made out of turnip greens / every time I kiss you girl it tastes like pork and beans." If you can't appreciate that, well then I question your Southern creditials. If you attend a few more Sunday afternoon potluck dinners at out-of-the-way churches where the ladies wear dresses in the summer, and pile your plate with potato salad, barbeque, and the dishes mentioned above, yes-ma'aming your way through the line, you'll start to understand the attraction.